Manage town hall recordings in Microsoft Teams

Record a town hall

Town halls will record automatically when the event starts. To learn more, see Host a town hall in Microsoft Teams.

Turn off automatic recording

If you want to record a town hall manually, or if you don't want to record it at all, turn off automatic recording in the town hall settings before the event starts.

To turn off automatic recording:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Open your upcoming town hall.
In Details, select Meeting options > Recording and transcript .
Turn the Record and transcribe automatically toggle off.
Select Apply.

Note: If you turn off automatic recording, you can manage who can start a recording. Open the event details in your Teams calendar. Go to Details > Meeting options Settings icon > Recording and transcript Icon used in the list filter and cue in Journal . Meeting roles, your org's license, and admin policies also determine who can record and transcribe.

Record a town hall manually

If you want to record a town hall manually, first turn off automatic recording. Then:

Select More actions in your meeting controls.
Select Record and transcribe > Start recording . When you select Start recording , the meeting transcription will start automatically.

Stop recording a town hall

To stop recording during a town hall:

Select More actions in your meeting controls.
Select Record and transcribe > Stop recording .
Select Stop.

When you stop recording, the meeting transcription will also stop.

Download a town hall recording

Organizers can download a town hall recording from Teams while it's not published. This allows you to edit the recording and publish it from OneDrive.

To download a town hall:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Right-click the past town hall.
Select Manage event .
In Recordings, find the recording you want to download.
Select Download .

Download town hall transcripts

After a town hall ends, download the transcripts to save and review them later. If you stopped and restarted the transcription during the event, there will be multiple transcripts.

To download town hall transcripts:

Open a past town hall from your Teams calendar.
Select Recordings.
Select Download transcripts .
- If there are multiple transcripts, they’ll be downloaded as separate files.

Transcripts will download in both .docx and .vtt file types.

Publish a town hall recording

After recording a town hall, publish the recording to make it available to attendees.

To publish a town hall recording:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Right-click the past event and select Manage event .
Select Recordings and choose the recording you want to publish.
Select Publish.
- If your recording is saved in OneDrive, select Publish from OneDrive.

Only one recording can be published at a time. After you publish a recording, attendees will be notified by email. External presenters won't receive an email notification.

Extend town hall recording access

Published town hall recordings expire, but you can extend how long they're available. To extend a town hall recording:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Right-click the town hall and select Manage event .
Next to the published recording, select Extend for 60 days > Extend.

If a recording expires after you have extended it, republish it to make it available again for attendees.

View a town hall recording

To view a town hall recording:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Right-click the past town hall.
Select Manage event .
In Recordings, select the recording you want to view.

Attendees can view a town hall recording after you publish it. When it's published, they'll receive an email with a link to the recording.

Share a town hall recording

To share a town hall recording:

Go to your Teams calendar.
Right-click the past town hall.
Select Manage event .
In Recordings, find the recording you want to share.
Select Copy link.
Share the link in a chat or post.

Anyone with event access can view the shared recording. To learn more about event access, see Schedule a town hall in Microsoft Teams.

Remove a town hall recording

Remove a published recording to prevent attendees from viewing it. You can republish recordings after removing them.

To remove a town hall recording,

Go to your Teams calendar.
Right-click the past event and select Manage event .
Select Recordings and choose the recording you want to remove.
Select Remove.

What's next?

Cancel a town hall